The invention concerns a device suitable for carrying on the body of a user to generate vacuum for medical applications, in particular, for the vacuum therapy of wounds on the bodies of humans or animals, with a vacuum-producing device and a single-use vessel to be discarded after use for holding body fluids, in particular, wound exudates suctioned out of a wound, and with a connector for a suction tube carried on the body for this purpose, wherein the vacuum-producing facility is disposed in or on a first housing part of the device and the vessel constitutes a second housing part of the device or is disposed in or on the second housing part, and the housing parts can be separably fixed to each other, wherein the device has fastening means enabling it to be carried on and moved with the body of the user.
Such devices for the vacuum therapy of wounds have already been disclosed by multiple sources, in particular, by US 2004/0073151 A1, WO 2009/047524 A2, WO 2007/030599 A2, and EP 1 905 465 A1.
In such devices for the vacuum therapy of wounds, a vacuum-producing device communicates with the wound or the region of the wound through a suction tube, wherein a cover material that is impermeable to air is provided for air-tight closure of the wound and the region of the wound, so that a vacuum can be established in the wound space and liquids from the wound space can be suctioned into the aforementioned vessel.
The term vacuum in connection with this invention refers to a lower air pressure than the ambient air pressure (atmospheric pressure), in particular inside the wound dressing. The cover material of a wound dressing for air-tight closure of a wound space must therefore be constituted such that it can withstand the established pressure difference so that the vacuum in the wound space can be initially produced and then maintained. In vacuum therapy for wound treatment, the vacuum is quantitatively expressed as the pressure difference between the ambient air pressure and the air pressure applied underneath the cover material. In vacuum therapy, this pressure difference is typically no more than 250 mm Hg (mm of mercury) (1 mm Hg=1 Torr.=133.322 Pa). This vacuum range not exceeding 250 mm Hg has proven advantageous for wound healing. A preferred vacuum range is between 10 and 150 mm Hg.
The vacuum applied to the wound using the device can, in typical vacuum therapy, either be kept essentially constant over time or it can vary over time, in particular, cyclically, which can be implemented using an appropriately constituted and programmed control device on the device producing the vacuum, in particular, in dependence on further parameters.
To apply the vacuum and preferably also to suction away body fluids, a preferably flexible suction tube, for example, in the form of a drainage tube, is provided that communicates at one end through a port in the region of the wound cover material with the wound environment or the wound space and at the other end with the vessel stated above for receiving body fluids or with the device producing the vacuum.
In addition to the vacuum therapy of wounds, other applications of the device described here are conceivable for providing a vacuum for medical applications, in particular, the removal by suction of any body fluids in medical incontinent care, the care of stoma patients, or for the removal by suction of wound exudates, possibly, using rinsing liquids, and also without the application of a vacuum over considerable periods.
The object of this invention is to improve a device of the type described above so that it can be handled and operated in a still more user-friendly way.